Compassion, Passion, and Fear
by Mark-and-Elizabeth-fan-always
Summary: When Elizabeth has cancer, will her boyfriend-girlfriend relationship with Mark survive? Romano shows compassion, but will it last? And what else will happen in the ER? PLEASE R AND R!
1. Default Chapter

Elizabeth Corday stood at her counter in her home. Her boyfriend, Mark Greene sat at the table. Elizabeth, who was walking to the fridge, suddenly felt a wave of dizziness fall over her. She grabbed the island in the middle of the kitchen. She stayed put until it subsided. Mark, who had been reading the paper, looked up. Elizabeth, now walking over to the table, felt another wave of dizziness, except way worse now. She began to feel extremely bad, piercing abdominal pain. It was her fourth bad bout that day. She tried to reach for the kitchen counter, but instead fell in a faint. Mark, who had turned back to the paper, started to look back to ask Elizabeth what was for dinner and couldn't see her.  
  
"Lizzie, LIZZIE!" he called as he looked around the kitchen. He screamed in horror as he saw his wife lying unconscious on the kitchen floor. He called to his daughter from a previous marriage Rachel.  
  
"RACH! RACH" Rachel came running and called 911 at her father's request.  
  
The ambulance attendants hooked Elizabeth up to an I.V. and oxygen. Mark, who along with Elizabeth, was a doctor, had never been on this side of the coin before. It had always been him meeting the couple at the ambulance bay. Now, he was being met at the bay.  
  
Doug Ross, his friend and co-worker, met them at the bay. Doug, who wasn't expecting to see his two closest friends, was taken aback. He looked at Mark, and then at Liz, who had just come around. The ambulance attendant and Mark explained the situation as Liz was wheeled into Emergency Room 1.  
  
Upon examination by Dr. Ross and another co-worker, Susan Lewis, worry began to flood the room. Dr. Ross cleared his throat.  
  
"It looks as if Liz may need surgery. We want to do a cat-scan first of the abdominal region. We just took the machine into her room. Mark, I am going to be frank."  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"It could be cancer. Myo.."  
  
"I know. I had a bad feeling. What are the chances?"  
  
"I don't know." Doug lied.  
  
"I know that you know, Doug. Tell me, be frank, like the Doug I know."  
  
"It's a 50-50..."  
  
"Doug, quit fabricating the truth."  
  
"70-30. Mark. I know this is hard."  
  
"Dammit!" he shouted.  
  
"Mark, let's wait for the results." Doug said.  
  
"Umm.. Doug they are here. Dr. Ross, I need to talk to you," Susan said. "Doug, we need Kerry Weaver to talk to Mark. It's a tumor. The black indicates a cancer." 


	2. Bad News

"I know. Can you get Weaver?" Doug asked as Susan nodded, but they were saved by Weaver walking in. Apparently, she had already read their minds.  
  
"Mark, we have bad news... Liz has a tumor... probably a cancerous one. We need to do surgery." Kerry said.  
  
"Oh my God, no!" Mark said.  
  
"Mark?" Liz asked, waking up from a nap.  
  
"Lizzie, you... you... you... have cancer. Abdominal cancer." Mark sputtered.  
  
"W—what?" Liz asked. "A tumor?"  
  
That night, Elizabeth was rushed into the O.R. with her arch nemesis Robert Romano presiding. She knew it might have been her only chance so she reluctantly agreed. In the OR, Robert opened her up and discovered a horrible mass of tumor. He gulped. He, not an emotional man at all, stuttered. It was malignant but treatable, with intense chemo.. maybe.  
  
When Romano emerged from the OR, Mark, Doug (who was off shift), Kerry (also off shift) and Susan (on her dinner break) waited outside. A plethora of nurses including Carol Hathaway, had also gathered. Dr. Romano asked to speak to Mark privately. This worried Mark, and he had reason.  
  
"Mark, it's highly malignant. She has a 40-60 chance. And that's with chemotherapy. And we need to remove her kidney and gallbladder. It will be intensive."  
  
"What?" When he had woken up thirteen hours before, he had not expected this at all!  
  
"Mark, we need to do the surgery tomorrow, but that means Liz will be in a drug-induced coma for the night until the operation, and after for a few days. The pain would be unbearable with out it."  
  
"Do whatever. Can I see her?" he asked. The other ER staff looked caringly at Mark. Doug knew approximately what was being said. While he wasn't good at reading people he was great at the medical junk. 


	3. Robert Romano, Compassionate Man?

"I'm sorry." Robert said walking with Mark over to the crowd of concerned people. They all went from worried to worriedly surprised that Romano, who was the most unemotional, rude person (tied with Kerry, normally) on the ER staff. He had actually shown a tad of compassion.  
  
"Thanks" Mark said. He too was shocked, but too worried to really notice or be affected by it.  
  
After Mark walked in to see Elizabeth, the group laughed.  
  
"Was Romano just remotely nice to Mark?" Susan whispered.  
  
"I think he was." Doug said.  
  
"Man, I didn't know Romano had it in him. Compassion I mean. I always saw Romano as colder than Kerry" Carol said.  
  
"Hey!" Kerry said. She had to admit, though, that the joke about her was a bit funny.  
  
"Now we only need Kerry to try sympathy—if the emotion exists within her!." Doug said with a straight face, darting the comment at his boss, standing beside him.  
  
"Shut up Doug." She said. 


End file.
